For example, a 1973 F-100 would cost you $2889, $16,794 after inflation. This is for a bone stock F-100 with a 4 speed manual, a 300CU I6 engine, and a bench seat. Now, if you wanted an automatic, air conditioning, cruise control and the 5.8L V8, you were looking at a cool $3400 minimum, or $19,765 today.
Compare this to a bone stock base model F-150 today. They cost $29,345 for the same config (single cab long bed), and a ford ranger is $4000 cheaper then that. But on the modern one, AC comes standard, Cruise is int he 101A package included with the quoted price. It makes 290HP, compared to 120HP for the 300 I6, or 220 for the 5.8L (corrected for net horsepower and not the gross BS numbers used back then). And it gets nearly 3x the real world fuel mileage, trucks back then got 8-9 MPG, 11 on the highway at 55 MPH. Modern F-150s on the highway push 26 MPG in base trims. And you get crumple zones and airbags,in the 1973 truck if you crash at high speed you just straight up died, the modern truck youll be bruised. And the new truck is going to be a HELL of a lot more reliable then a 70's heap was. And you get seats that actually fit your body and are adjustable, and bluetooth integration, and a decent speaker system, and power door locks and powered windows and a smooth quiet ride and higher towing and payload capacities.
And dont forget rust. Cars in the 70 lasted 3, charitably 4 years in the rust belt. Modern vehicles last 25+. You're gonna get a lot mroe mileage out of a modern vehicle and pay far less int he long run. Ask any non-car people how long things lasted back then (car guys will tell you things back then lasted forever, they are delusional).
Another example: apartments, and living in general. In the 70s, if you dint hit it big right out of the gate, you lived in a literal poor house, sharing a room with someone else, until you got the cash together along with a roomate to get an apartment. Living by yourself in a 1 bedroom at 18 was a pipe dream for most. Sure, there were many who bought a house at 18 and got married, but here's the thing, they were LOADED IN DEBT UP TO THE EYEBALLS to do it. Many think the boomers had it easy, but the vast majority still lived paycheck to paycheck just like many do today. The real difference is that jobs were more stable and widely available at the time. You;d be surprised, if you sat many successful boomers down, how many struggled with bills when they were young.
They didnt eat out every day. There was no delivery. They bought cheap food in bulk, mass prepared it, and stored much of it. Things like potatoes, salted meat, baking their own bread, ece. They bought fruit cheap when it was in season (because in the 70s you couldnt just go into a walmart in February and buy fresh apples and pears) and canned it, filling their pantrys and basements with canned food that they ate the rest of the year. You had your own garden and tended to it for your vegetables. You froze bread and used powdered tard cum unless you could afford the luxury of buying fresh tard cum every week. Sure, only one person worked to maintain the household, but the wife would work her ass off too to make sure food was on the table. And those portions of food were TINY compared to todays. The lifestyle of grocery shopping every week evolved in the 90s.
The less well off didnt have TVs. They had old radios they sat around and listened to. They didnt have a mobile phone, and calling outside the county ran up massive charges. All bill paying and paperwork was done by hand. And there was no direct deposit. You picked up your check and physically cashed it at the bank every 2 weeks. You didnt have AC unless you were wealthy,a nd your workplace, which typically involved a lot of physical labor, didnt have AC either, and neither did your vehicles unless you were DAMN wealthy. Clothes were expensive and you took DAMN good care of them because having a closet full of clothes was for the 1%. And for families, the level of toys and possessions children get today is mind boggling. A big house back then was a 1500sq foot place, today thats a starter home.
It's true that american purchasing power has waned and stalled for decades, and that the economy has repeatedly shit the bed, but it is equally true that today we are spoiled rotten. What we expect today would have made us the 1% back in the mid 70s, with out mobile supercomputers and air conditioned, super safe, fuel efficient cars that would outrun a 70s mustang without breaking a sweat, being able to call anyone anywhere in the world at the touch of a button, the worlds information at your fingers, able to pick up a ready to eat meal for the cost of an hours minimum wage work, oh yeah and the wonderful modern medical system. Diabetes was debilitating back then, smallpox and measles were still around, a clogged artery meant a heat attack, your joints going bad meant a lifetime of severe pain, and mental issues? Go get thrown into a mental asylum and raped and tortured if you cant handle it on your own. Cancer was usually only found late stage, and almost guaranteed death sentence, same with HIV.
If you want to live like its the 1970s, canning food and driving cheap ass shitboxes, using a dumb phone with no home internet, using no modern medicine and hoping you dont keel over dead, you can easily make it with shit pay and low hours, and still live better then someone poor in the 70s. But nobody wants to live that way anymore, because its horribly inconvenient and a LOT of work.
